A 4.5 for effort here that wanes among a small gathering. Fun to try at a tasting for something different. This might be fun to try in a red-eye to give the coffee more base. Just reiterating, a 3 on this site is OK. Not horrible, jus not my cup of tea...er coffee. Coffee and lemon belong in the Turkish cup of pure joe in Madagascar.

Smells like my coffee pot when I rinse out the old cold coffee. Good god, yuk!

Very little "beer" (of any style) flavor here. Malt sweetness is absent, just a little cardboardy grainy husky flavor. Hops - none. Interesting yeast derived flavors - none. Coffee flavors dominate, but not in a good full bodied coffee way, more like a watered down leftover coffee way. There is also a slight sourness that reminded me of when I run vinegar through the coffe pot to clean it. Imagine 1 part burnt coffee, 1 part Fat Tire, 1 part water, a drop of distilled vinegar.

Appearance - Pours a mud brown color that turns ruby red when held to light. The head is a sandstone color, one finger width and has fair retention, resulting in a broken layer of suds across the surface. The lacing is small and spotty, with fair stick.

Taste - No surprises here. Deep coffee character makes up the bulk of the flavor profile, while moderate notes of chocolate and caramel round out the front end. Traces of lemon zest can be found on the tongue in the aftertaste.

Mouthfeel - Light in body with fair carbonation. Not much to it, but it's easy to drink.

Overall - A nice coffee infused ale from New Belgium. If they brought this back permanently, I'd probably buy it a few times a year. As is, I'm glad I got to try it as their featured 'Revival' brew.

My new Brother in law gave me a couple of mix-a-sixes from Colorado for my "groomsman gift" (I was one of the ushers), and he thought that this one would pique my curiosity given my penchant for peculiar beers.

A - Deep burnished amber. This is nearly maroon in it's dark red intensity, and the head is a big fluffy three finger affair that shows decent retention after it drops to a thick foamy cap. A quick swirl brings up a full finger of head and leaves a good deal of lace on the glass.

S - Whoa! Now that smells CRAZY! The dominant note is of crushed espresso beans and it's exactly like sticking your nose into a bag of freshly ground dark roast. Also reminds me of those dark chocolate covered espresso beads. Honestly, the smell is wonderfully authentic but woefully one dimensional.

T - Ok. I've been giving this time to sink in after many sips... this one is just too weird. I can definitely taste espresso, but it's as if someone dumped a couple shots into a glass of V8 vegetable juice. I can detect rotten tomato ketchup-y flavors that do not complement the coffee notes in any way shape or form, and the combination of a lemon-y tang, malty sweetness, and bitter dark roast coffee is not good.

M - Medium bodied and foamy, this has a viscosity to it that does not help the vegetable juice flavors. This finishes terribly by leaving a rotten pukey foulness in the mouth with a lingering feeling of foamy thickness.

D - I'm glad that I got the chance to try it, but this is absolutely rot-gut. It's too bad too, since the nose is amazingly authentic and smells more like actual espresso beans than any other beer I've tried. It's pretty too, but those flavors just don't do it for me.

Pours a ruby red-brown with attractive and tall head. Lace is lovely and lattice-like.

Nose is malty and a little roasty. I get plenty of autumnal notes (appropriate as this is part of the Fall 2013 Folly Pack). There's caramel, wet leaves, and a definite touch of coffee.

Taste is sweet and malty, with coffee up front and a hint of citrus (lemongrass) under the palate. I get a cola-type vibe here, as the coffee isn't over-the-top, though it is present and accounted for. Body seems thin. My overall impression, oddly -- flat cola!

Appearance: I was extremely shocked…bright orange, very odd for an espresso beer. The closest thing I've seen is Dogfish Head's chocolate beer that is also orange.

Smell: Strong scent of chocolate and espresso. The smells sneak up on you with the color.

Taste/Mouthfeel: Another odd combination that works: espresso and lemon. The coffee is extremely evident and perks you up, but the lemon cleans the palate while still keeping you interested. Light-medium body.

A: Pours reddish brown. I had a hard time squeezing a lot of head out of it and it dissipated fast with almost no lacing on the glass.

S: Smells like a coffee shop. I guess that's sort of the point. I am not generally into this sort of thing, but damn, this smells good!

T: The espresso is at the core of this thing. In fact, it's completely overbearing despite the slight lemon and vanilla trying to balance it out. There's not a lot of complexity here, though, there's almost no bite to it, and honestly, it tastes sort of watery, like drinking watered down coffee with a lemon wedge in it. This one is just not doin' it for me. I prefer that my beer tastes like beer.

M: Thin, with a little carbonation that makes up for it. Not impressed.

D: Well, I could definitely pound these without really thinking about it, but I've come to expect more than that from New Belgium brews. Still, it's drinkable as a session beer, but I'd honestly rather just get Pabst or something cheap like that. As far as red ales go, this is nowhere close to something like, say, Cinder Cone, which is miles above this in terms of quality.

I'm pretty disappointed in this one. Maybe I got a bad bottle or something (if the next one is better, I'll be sure to edit this review to reflect that).

On tap at Naja's on 9/3/08.
Looked good. I had no idea what it was but ordered it because I was curious. Dark red, similar to Fat Tire, but slightly darker.
Smelled like strong coffee, maybe some vanilla, kind of hard to get too much of a smell with the two broads smoking right next to us.
Taste was like a cup of weak coffee. Meaning that this was the most coffee I have ever tasted in a beer. It was fantastic the way the malt and coffee jumped back and forth. I was very impressed and shocked. I had no idea it was a coffee beer until that first sip.
Mouthfeel was good. Smooth, very similar to Fat Tire.
The drinkability suffered because the beer just got a bit old after a while. It was so intense with coffee that it almost got a bit obnoxious. Still a very good beer and I would try it again if I ever see it, which may be never.
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